Golfing & the Internet

[faldo]

I saw this story yesterday & thought it might be useful for the Ottawa Valley.
Any Golf Course owners out there??

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

APR 07, 2004 VANCOUVER SUN PAGE: F17
More courses using Internet to lure players
Cyberspace is becoming a good way to fill empty tee sheets on short notice
notice

Brad Ziemer
Vancouver Sun
You've got mail! It just might be your local golf course trying to entice you with a special offer.
Course operators are increasingly turning to cyberspace as a tool to help fill empty tee sheets on short notice.
Several courses are building databases of past customers and putting them to good use to drum up business.
Here's how it works. Let's say you're a golf course general manager or head
professional and, at 5 p.m. Friday, you notice some large holes on your tee sheet Monday afternoon. What you might do is send out an e-mail offering a discounted green fee for play during those quiet times.
Voila, that tee sheet often fills as fast as a Tiger Woods charge on Sunday afternoon.
"We started it about two years ago," says Michael Stuart, general manager of
Hazelmere in south Surrey. "We look at the tee sheets and if see significant gaps we'll send a message to a database of close to 1,000 people that we have collected and let them know we have a special. For example, if you have four guys you might be able to play for $120. That's $30 a green fee.
"We fill our dead times that way. It's like a tomato. If you don't sell your tomato and it goes rotten, you've lost it. If you don't sell your tee time and it goes away, you've lost it. It's worked out really well for us."
Westwood Plateau, the high-end mountainside layout in Coquitlam where the rack rate is $159, has used e-mails to fill its slow times for the past couple of years.
"It works as a great tool for us to be able to sit here and go, there is a block of tee times from 10 to 2:50 tomorrow we'd like to fill," says Scott Masse, golf operations manager at Westwood.
"We'll send out a last-minute special, whether it's a golf and dinner package for $99 or something else. We try to change it all the time. The key is to keep it last-minute and random. That's kind of what makes it work for us."
Masse says it is a good way for reward past customers for their loyalty.
Westwood limits its e-mails to those who are cardholders at the club.
"We've been doing it for a couple of years and we're starting to build a real following with it," Masse says. "People will call us and say, 'hey, are you going to have a special?' It really works for us. You apply the philosophy that it is better to get something for those tee times than nothing at all. Once they are gone you can't get them back. That is the philosophy we have adopted."
The Golf B.C. group, which owns and operates eight courses throughout the province, has used the same approach to great effect.
"We started it probably three years ago," says Bill Leclair of Golf B.C. "It started off at our Okanagan Golf Club in Kelowna and was just for locals.
You called at 5 p.m. the night before and booked what tee times were available at quite a deep discount.
"It went all through the company and there are different variations of it.
Nicklaus North has some different rules and our Island courses have some different rules. We have worked at assembling a loyal customer base so when there are holes in the tee sheets you can get out to your loyal-customer base and people that are coming to those particular courses. We can send them an e-mail and say to them, 'we've noticed you play Gallagher's Canyon and you might be interested in this.'"
The Redwoods in Langley allows golfers to simply register on its website if they want to receive e-mail specials.
"We do a lot of e-mail blasts," says Erica Parnell, assistant manager at Redwoods. "Golfers can simply [register] on our website and give us their name and e-mail address. We can look at our tee sheet on Thursday and if we see Saturday for some reason is not filling, we can do something."
Redwoods is in the process of expanding its website and will soon be asking golfers for more specific information.
"We want to try to better categorize them so, for example, all the women receive a different e-mail blast from the men," Parnell says. "That's what we are working towards."
Shuksan Golf Course near Bellingham also aggressively markets itself via e-mail to its past customers. Owner Rick Dvorak said it makes good business sense for his course, which also frequently sends out coupons recipients can print out for discounted green fees.
"Our database is pretty specific to people who have been here and know us,"
Dvorak says.
"It's effective. It is a good way to get the word out on general product, promotions or specials. We are finding 99 per cent of our e-mails are opened. The good news is people are reading them."

[EDSGOLF]

I saw this story yesterday & thought it might be useful for the Ottawa Valley.
Any Golf Course owners out there??

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

APR 07, 2004 VANCOUVER SUN PAGE: F17
More courses using Internet to lure players
Cyberspace is becoming a good way to fill empty tee sheets on short notice
notice

Brad Ziemer
Vancouver Sun
You've got mail! It just might be your local golf course trying to entice you with a special offer.
Course operators are increasingly turning to cyberspace as a tool to help fill empty tee sheets on short notice.
Several courses are building databases of past customers and putting them to good use to drum up business.
Here's how it works. Let's say you're a golf course general manager or head
professional and, at 5 p.m. Friday, you notice some large holes on your tee sheet Monday afternoon. What you might do is send out an e-mail offering a discounted green fee for play during those quiet times.
Voila, that tee sheet often fills as fast as a Tiger Woods charge on Sunday afternoon.
"We started it about two years ago," says Michael Stuart, general manager of
Hazelmere in south Surrey. "We look at the tee sheets and if see significant gaps we'll send a message to a database of close to 1,000 people that we have collected and let them know we have a special. For example, if you have four guys you might be able to play for $120. That's $30 a green fee.
"We fill our dead times that way. It's like a tomato. If you don't sell your tomato and it goes rotten, you've lost it. If you don't sell your tee time and it goes away, you've lost it. It's worked out really well for us."
Westwood Plateau, the high-end mountainside layout in Coquitlam where the rack rate is $159, has used e-mails to fill its slow times for the past couple of years.
"It works as a great tool for us to be able to sit here and go, there is a block of tee times from 10 to 2:50 tomorrow we'd like to fill," says Scott Masse, golf operations manager at Westwood.
"We'll send out a last-minute special, whether it's a golf and dinner package for $99 or something else. We try to change it all the time. The key is to keep it last-minute and random. That's kind of what makes it work for us."
Masse says it is a good way for reward past customers for their loyalty.
Westwood limits its e-mails to those who are cardholders at the club.
"We've been doing it for a couple of years and we're starting to build a real following with it," Masse says. "People will call us and say, 'hey, are you going to have a special?' It really works for us. You apply the philosophy that it is better to get something for those tee times than nothing at all. Once they are gone you can't get them back. That is the philosophy we have adopted."
The Golf B.C. group, which owns and operates eight courses throughout the province, has used the same approach to great effect.
"We started it probably three years ago," says Bill Leclair of Golf B.C. "It started off at our Okanagan Golf Club in Kelowna and was just for locals.
You called at 5 p.m. the night before and booked what tee times were available at quite a deep discount.
"It went all through the company and there are different variations of it.
Nicklaus North has some different rules and our Island courses have some different rules. We have worked at assembling a loyal customer base so when there are holes in the tee sheets you can get out to your loyal-customer base and people that are coming to those particular courses. We can send them an e-mail and say to them, 'we've noticed you play Gallagher's Canyon and you might be interested in this.'"
The Redwoods in Langley allows golfers to simply register on its website if they want to receive e-mail specials.
"We do a lot of e-mail blasts," says Erica Parnell, assistant manager at Redwoods. "Golfers can simply [register] on our website and give us their name and e-mail address. We can look at our tee sheet on Thursday and if we see Saturday for some reason is not filling, we can do something."
Redwoods is in the process of expanding its website and will soon be asking golfers for more specific information.
"We want to try to better categorize them so, for example, all the women receive a different e-mail blast from the men," Parnell says. "That's what we are working towards."
Shuksan Golf Course near Bellingham also aggressively markets itself via e-mail to its past customers. Owner Rick Dvorak said it makes good business sense for his course, which also frequently sends out coupons recipients can print out for discounted green fees.
"Our database is pretty specific to people who have been here and know us,"
Dvorak says.
"It's effective. It is a good way to get the word out on general product, promotions or specials. We are finding 99 per cent of our e-mails are opened. The good news is people are reading them."

Thank you VERY much for the interesting read!

[mkemila]

Sounds like a good idea........but will the course owners take the loss on the greenfees or use the open spots to do maintainance?